It's been kind of a rough year for one of my friends. Her (soon-to-be-ex) husband is a slouch who does nothing but play WoW all day and won't even watch the kids. She's afraid of him, and his kid from his first marriage is autistic and has a predilection for choking his 3 year old little sister.

So, up until a week or so ago, the mother was staying in a shelter, and MY WIFE and I decided we'd throw everything we had into giving the little girl a good Christmas (even forgoing buying presents for each other).

They came over yesterday, and for the first time in my life I got to be Santa. I got to eat cookies late at night, drink some milk, and make one special little girl very, very happy. So far it's been a pretty great morning, even if she did have us up at 4am!